In the midst of a three month North American tour, globetrotting French beatmaker Onra took some time to chat with Blisspop about touring, his evolving live show and Deep In The Night, his new EP out on Fool’s Gold Records.
Onra will be performing live at U Street Music Hall tomorrow night (July 18) along with label mate Party Supplies, fellow RBMA grad Pursuit Grooves and Volta Bureau’s Micah Vellian. Tickets and info here.
So you started this North American tour earlier in the summer. How has it been going so far?
Yeah, its been going very well. I mean, it’s not my first time so I’m glad to go back to places I’ve been before, and I’m glad to play new music in front of new audiences.
That’s great. So on this tour you’re going to be doing live sets as well as DJ sets, is that right?
Yeah, it’s about 95% live sets. When a friend is doing a party I’ll sometimes play a DJ set.
Has your live MPC performance evolved much over the past year or two years?
Yeah, of course. I mean, the more you do, the more it evolves, the more you find tricks and stuff to do, the more confident you get. So, you know, of course it’s much better than two years ago.
Pursuit Grooves has been added to the lineup for your date at U Street Music Hall. You two have played quite a few shows together. How has it been sharing the bill with her in the past?
It’s been great. I mean, she’s like family so I’m just really excited to play with her again, especially after all those years. And especially since we first did our first tours together and we were so inexperienced and new to everything. So after a few years — I think four years — four years later, it’s great to share the bill with her again.
You both met through Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona, is that right?
No, we met before; we were friends before. But we met again through RBMA, which was kinda crazy because we sent our applications at the same time, but we didnt know if we were gonna get in, and we got in the same year during the same session so it was cool.
Oh, how did you both originally meet and link up?
We were just talking on Myspace, you know. At this time, like 2005, we started talking on Myspace ’cause I really loved what she was doing and we just talked. And when she came to Paris, we met. When I first went to New York, we spent some time there. So you know she’s just a person, a friend that I’ve seen many times in many different places.
Wow that’s great, didn’t realize the relationship had gone back so far. Can you tell us a little about the new EP: is it a departure from some of your previous work, an evolution of it? How would you describe it?
I mean it sounds more like…because my previous work is so different from one end to another you cannot really compare, you know. But I guess if you had to compare it to something that I’ve previously released, it would be Long Distance, the album that came out on CD in 2010. Sounds more like that, but still I think it’s different: it’s less funky, it’s more like R&B. That’s the impression I have from it.
Do you have anything in the pipeline now that you’ve wrapped up? Any upcoming collaborations that you can talk about at the moment?
You mean like beats I could sell, or on the side…no, nothing. I guess I’m on tour all the time so when I come back I work on something that I already did, then I go back on tour. I don’t really have too much time anymore to create and do some other stuff.
Yeah it looks like you’re doing quite a bit of touring. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat. We’ll see you in DC soon!
You’re welcome, see you soon!